Sampson’s Oil Cloth Factory, on Mt. Olivet Avenue (59th Drive) and Fresh Pond Road was quite a large operation. In fact, in 1882, it was Maspeth’s largest manufacturer and employer and the largest manufacturer of oil cloth in the world. A great percentage of the employees were Polish, and the company built houses for them on Mt. Olivet Avenue.
When a fire occurred in Maspeth, the fire siren on top of the Alden Sampson Oil Cloth Factory would scream out its summons and volunteer firefighters would race to the firehouses to receive their direction.
When the city acquired this property in 1944, the community hoped to create a recreational facility. After an addition and elimination project, the barren land, which today is bounded by 59th Drive, 59th Avenue, 63rd Street, and Fresh Pond Road, was shifted 50 feet to the east. Short-lived proposals for the construction of a health center failed, and the Board of Education proposed to use the site for a new Intermediate School, which would become I.S. 349.
The local Community Planning Board and the local School Board voted against the existence of the new intermediate school, but the Board of Education overruled them both. In one of the most heated political battles in Maspeth’s history, the school issue was debated for well over two years, making newspapers across the city. The Board of Education planned the new intermediate school as a state-of-the-art educational facility, and argued that it would foster “better ethnic distribution of children.”
The community organizations had several other suggestions for the use of this land. First, if a school was to be built, they wanted a high school to relieve the population stress on nearby Grover Cleveland High School. They were also opposed to the substantial influx of people a new intermediate school would bring, fearing community disruption. Above all, they wanted the land to be used for a park for the neighborhood children, citing the overwhelming number of youths interested in Little League baseball and the inadequate number of playing fields.
Under the leadership of Andrew J. Reiff (1887-1963), community activist and president of the Ridgewood-Metropolitan Civic Association, and others, Maspeth residents won their point. The Board of Education was denied the land, which was designated as a park in 1964. In 1969, the City Council of New York passed a local law to name the park Andrew J. Reiff Memorial Playground, later shortened to Reiff Playground.
